


carnations, forget me nots & roses

by frederickweasleys



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pining, brief mention of the war death and injury, flower shop au, postwar!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28789350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frederickweasleys/pseuds/frederickweasleys
Summary: since the war, fred likes spending his time around muggle london. one day he finds himself in a flower shop, face-to-face with who he thinks might be the love of his life/cross posted on tumblr! http://parseltongueswriting.tumblr.com
Relationships: Fred Weasley/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	carnations, forget me nots & roses

**Author's Note:**

> This is your typical ‘Fred goes to the muggle world to relax after the war and falls in love with a muggle fic’ but I’m absolutely obsessed with flower shop aus so…………. Heyyyyy. Also, I have ideas for a part two where Fred opens up about being a wizard because I couldn’t bring myself to break up the story after Fred essentially confesses so…. Let me know if that's something youd be interested in!

Fred walks down the streets of muggle London on his lunch hour, the cafe he frequents in his sights. He’s been coming more often, fascinated by the muggles and their unawareness for the war that raged in the wizarding world only a year prior.

He always loves getting away. He loves magic, growing up with it his entire life how could he not. But sometimes he needs a break, to be  _ just Fred  _ and not  _ Fred the wizard jokester who helped save the world.  _ George understands, of course he does, and when Fred tells him where he’s going he’s always happy to man the shop for a bit.

As he walks in, the worker greets him with a ‘Hi Fred, the usual today?’ and he happily nods while he waits to pay. He’s been coming to this cafe for the past few weeks and he’s grown accustomed to the friendly ambience and he notes to himself that he needs to bring George here one day. 

His black tea and the ham and cheese croissant is placed in front of him and he smiles up at the waiter as he says thanks and turns back to his people watching. He’s minding his own business when he sees her.

She’s running down across the street, her bright purple hair flying behind her and Fred is fascinated. He’s only ever met one person with purple hair and his heart aches at the memory of Tonks. He’s drawn out of his mourning as the girl with brightly coloured hair jaywalks across the street quickly and right into the cafe Fred is situated in.

He looks away quickly, suddenly feeling somewhat exposed. Fred, by no means, blends in. He’s 6’3, pretty muscular, ginger and he’s dressed in a way no muggle dresses. He  _ knows  _ he should invest in some muggle clothing but what’s the point in wearing it only for an hour, so Fred settles for the weird looks he sometimes gets because of his dragon hide suit and orange tie. 

“Hi, Y/N!” Fred is pulled out his trance. She’s a regular just like him, he realises as the barista starts punching in an order without her even speaking, and Fred wonders why he’s never noticed her before until the barista speaks again, “I love the new hair colour!” 

“Oh my God, thank you. My mother  _ hates  _ it,” she laughs as she pays, “says I should stay  _ natural _ .” She says natural in a mocking turn and rolls her eyes and Fred thinks he might be in love. 

But before Fred can even think to approach her, she’s collecting her coffee  _ (dirty chai with one pump hazelnut on oat milk,  _ Fred notes) as she rushes out the door and he starts to think he might have imagined her.

-

It’s Sunday when he sees her again, though not by a coincidence of them being in the same cafe, and Fred’s convinced its fate.

He’s dawdling around the streets of muggle London because the shop closes at 1pm on Sundays when he notices the quaint little flower shop. It’s his mother’s birthday in a few days and while he knows she loves cookbooks and magical kitchenware, he decides he wants to get her flowers this year.

So he pushes open the door, the small bell going off to alert the clerk of his arrival and a soft ‘one second!’ is shouted from the back. The flower shop is small, it’s sandwiched between a Harrods and a huge bookstore so of course, it is, but Fred thinks it’s perfect. 

Before he knows it, the purple-haired girl is standing in front of him and beaming. “Hey! You were at the coffee shop the other day!” 

Fred’s taken aback- both from the fact it’s  _ the girl from the coffee shop  _ and the fact  _ she recognised him _ . “You- you saw me there?” 

“Well it’s not every day a tall as fuck ginger in a weird suit checks you out,” she’s laughing so Fred knows it didn’t make her uncomfortable but he can feel a blush creeping upon his neck. Fred, by no means, is shy when it comes to flirting, so he doesn’t understand the hold this girl has over him.

“Personally for me, it’s not every day a purple-haired girl jaywalks across a 4 lane street,” he replies casually and it’s her turn to look away in embarrassment. 

She coughs awkwardly, probably to distract Fred from her shyness before she speaks again, “Do you need help with anything?” 

“It’s my mum’s birthday soon, I want to get her some flowers.” She nods in acknowledgement as she walks around the store, “Well, flowers have lots of meanings. What are some words that you’d use to describe her?” She queries as she looks at the flowers.

Fred’s a little confused, just used to the normal meanings like red roses mean love and sunflowers mean… Well, he’s not entirely sure, but he’s positive sunflowers probably just mean the sun, but he answers her anyway.

“Well, she’s very loving,” he starts and he finds it hard to break down his mother into just a few words, “very familial, I have six siblings, some in-laws now and she loves us all the same. Not to mention she’s still disgustingly in love with my dad after 30 plus years,” she giggles at this and makes a comment under her breath that Fred thinks is  _ ‘that’s sweet’.  _ “She’s also very strong, probably the strongest person I know…” he trails off as he eyes some flowers. 

“She seems incredibly sweet…” The girl trails off, realising her and the tall man in front of her haven’t even exchanged names, but he seems to pick up on this as he looks at her and smiles, "Fred.” 

“Fred,” she repeats, “I’m Y/N.” He nods in acknowledgement, still fascinated by the flowers. 

“I’d suggest carnations, for your mum,” she says, dragging Fred out of an obvious daydream, “the white ones specifically represent motherly love. Roses are good too, but not red I’d say pink. They mean appreciation and gratitude, which is what it seems like you have for your mother.” 

Fred thinks he could listen to her talk about flowers forever, the look of happiness on her face as she recommended flowers to him bringing warmth to his heart. 

“Her birthday isn’t for a few days…” He starts and her face falters slightly as if she’s expecting Fred to reject the flowers she had mentioned, “but could I pay for it now and come back and collect it?” She nods happily. 

When she asks for Fred’s number so she could ring him when the bouquet is ready, he hesitates slightly before remembering Hermione taught him how to use a muggle phone device and he thinks he needs to thank her for indirectly saving him from looking like an idiot in front of Y/N. 

He bids her goodbye, with a promise that he’ll be in next Saturday to pick up the flowers and he doesn’t miss the hint of excitement on her face at that.

\- 

He feels terrible. 

As usual, Fred was running late so when he arrived at the flower shop to pick up the flowers he could barely muster a thank you so much before he rushed to the apparition point to attend his mum's birthday party. 

So here he is, Monday on his lunch hour holding her coffee order that he hopes he got correct. He briefly wonders if this oversteps a line but as he walks into the flower shop the smile on Y/N’s face makes it worth it.

“Fred, hi!” She exclaims as she makes her way around the flowers to approach him. She’d been worried she had done something to make him uncomfortable when he rushed by on Saturday, but seeing as he’s here now, she doesn’t think so. “How did your mum like the bouquet?” 

“Cried like a baby,” he laughs, “she’s always loved flowers and gardening so when I told her what the flowers meant she cried even harder.” He passes her the coffee, “an apology, for rushing out the door on Saturday.” 

“You didn’t have too, what if you got my order wrong?” She questions with a smile on her face, “I don’t drink ‘ _ normal person drinks’,  _ I’m quite the picky one.”

“Dirty chai with a shot of hazelnut on oat milk?” He replies, the pesky blush that always rises on his cheeks when he’s around Y/N finding it’s way back up his neck. 

She looks at him, confused, “How  _ did  _ you get that?” 

Fred shrugs nonchalantly before she raises an eyebrow at him and his whole facade is broken, “I went to the cafe we first saw each other in, I haven’t the slightest what the fuck a  _ dirty chai  _ is,” he laughs and the realisation clicks in Y/N’s face. 

“That would make sense," she laughs, "it’s just a chai with a shot of espresso,” she replies, taking a sip of the drink and visibly relaxing due to the warm drink warming her body from the cool autumn air that had made its way inside. 

“Now you know something about me, tell me something about you. Six? Siblings you said? I’m fascinated.”

She sets herself up on the counter, so she can somewhat reach Fred’s height so she can look at his face comfortably as they converse. “Yes, six. Five brothers and one little sister. My twin George and I are the middle siblings and you can guess we gave our mum lots of trouble growing up.” He laughs, remembering all the magical pranks he played on both his siblings and parents growing up with George. 

“You’re a twin as well? That’s so cool, are you close?” Y/N realises this is a little nosey, but she can’t help it. Fred is like no one she’s ever met before and she’s dying to know more about him. 

“Yeah, he’s my best friend, we live together as well. Finished school and moved out at 18. We own a joke shop together now.” He’s not completely lying, he did ‘finish’ school and he does own a joke shop with George, he just doesn’t know how to word  _ dropped out of magical high school and opened a magical joke shop _ without being questioned. 

“Ugh, I wish I had siblings I was close to. My only brother is  _ way  _ older than me and he’s an architect.” Fred nods, pretending to know what an architect is and makes a mental note to look it up later. 

They sit there and talk for a while, Y/N leaving every so often to tend to customers that briefly come.

He learns she’s twenty, almost twenty-one and that she’s currently in university but hates it and she loves floristry and would happily work in a flower shop for the rest of her life. Fred tells her there’s nothing wrong with dropping out if it makes her unhappy and that he thinks working in a flower shop is cool. 

He doesn’t miss the appreciation in her eyes when he says this and it’s clear university was not her idea. 

Soon enough, Fred is mumbling a  _ ‘fuck’  _ under his breath when he notices the time and apologises profusely as he leaves. “It’s been way longer than an hour, my brother is going to kill me, I’ll…” he stops, wondering if a promise of returning to the flower shop is too much, “I’ll come and visit again, promise.” 

“Bye, Freddie,” she smiles and waves as he rushes out the door and he almost falls on the icy sidewalk as he hears her call him that.

\- 

Fred starts spending all his lunch breaks at the flower shop with Y/N. He brings her coffee and sits and watches her as she potters around tending to flowers and customers. They share stories from school and growing up, Fred obviously omitting parts of his childhood that expose the wizarding world. 

Fred didn't realise how bad he was suffering from the war still until he met Y/N. The jokes she tells brings him genuine happiness and how she treats him as _just Fred_ and not some celebrity is relieving after everything. He wants to thank her somehow, but he isn't sure how and it's going to eat him alive.

Y/N wants to one day meet Fred at his shop, saying it’s unfair that he has to walk all the way to her shop when she could easily give up one day and walk to his, but Fred always gives her weird excuses as to why she can't.

She’s starting to think he doesn’t  _ actually  _ like her like she’s starting to fall for him and she’s extremely embarrassed. She thinks she read too much into the coffee and him using his lunch hour to hang out with her. Y/N doesn’t like confrontation, so she decides she’ll just deal with the embarrassment when Fred slams into the flower shop one day, holding a bouquet of flowers.

“You found a new flower shop girl?” Is the first thing to leave Y/N’s mouth and although she means it in a teasing manner, it doesn't come off this way and she curses the slight jealousy she feels.

Fred laughs and shakes his head, “No, well kind of but just because I wanted these to be a surprise, you know.” 

She raises an eyebrow at him, not understanding what he means. “Dark red carnations, these mean affection, right?” She nods, “and light red ones mean admiration, yes?” She nods again, not understanding where Fred is going. 

“Forget me nots, mean respect and love.” This one isn’t a question, but Y/N nods anyway. The jealousy rising in her throat. He’s only asked her to double-check the meanings of the flowers before he gives them to another girl, she thinks. 

“And pink roses represent gratitude but you already know that. They were in your mum’s bouquet” 

Fred nods, and before she knows it, he’s shoving the bouquet in her direction and urging her to take it. She looks at him confused before Fred grabs her hand and places the bouquet in it, “It’s for you, dummy.”

She looks at the flowers and then up at him again, probably more confused than the last time. “What do you mean these are for me?” 

“Well, you like flowers. I like you. This is my way of telling you I like you and I’d like to take you out on a date… If that’s okay.” Fred’s shoving his hands in his pockets and the shyness that Y/N brings out in him makes an appearance. 

“You… You want to take me on a date?” Fred nods, not trusting his voice. “Why?” 

“Because, now this is deep, last year I had an accident. A really bad one I… I don’t really want to get into the nitty-gritty details but it was bad and I...” he says and clears his throat before continuing, “well, you’ve managed to take my mind off it without even realising it. You’ve… helped me I guess, in a way and I want to repay you, even if you want to go out as friends that’s okay even though I am making it clear, I would like take you on a  _ non-platonic  _ date _ , _ ” he emphasises, purely because of the look of confusion gracing Y/N’s face.

It’s a lot to take in and Y/N doesn’t pry on whatever this accident was and she doesn’t pry on why Fred needed to be changed for the better but all she can do is admire the flowers and nod. “I’d love to go on a non-platonic date with you, Freddie,” she whispers. 

Fred’s face breaks out in the biggest smile she’s ever seen grace his features and she wants to make him smile like this forever. “Good.. good…” He says, almost like he’s convincing himself that Y/N said yes, “how’s Friday sound? 6pm, I’ll pick you up from here”

“Friday at 6pm sounds perfect,” she replies and Fred is beaming. 

“I’ll see you then, flower,” he winks as he leaves the shop, leaving Y/N flabbergasted. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Just reiterating, this has been cross posted on my tumblr and if you're interested in more, my requested are currently open!
> 
> Love always,  
> Fae


End file.
